Island



(No Model.) y

J. A. MILLER.

WIRE WOUND GUN.

Patented 001;. 6, 1896.

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m @g5/QW UNITED STATES 'Erica PATENT WIRE-WOUND GUN.V

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 568,914, dated October 6, 1896.

Application filed July 28,1893. Serial No. 481,734. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH A. MILLER, of the city of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Guns; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accom panying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention has reference to an improvement in the cla-ss of guns in which the barrel is strengthened by coils of wire wound around the same.

The object of this invention is to secure longitudinal strength in a wire-wound gun.

Another object of this invention is to so interweave longitudinal wires with the spirally-wound wires that the whole Jforms a compact mass able to resist longitudinal as well as radial strain.

The invention consists in the peculiar and novel construction by which longitudinal wires are placed between two coils of spirallywound wires.

The invention further consists in so interplaiting the longitudinal wires with the spirally-coiled wires that the spirally-wound wires are partially embedded into the longitudinal wires, as will be more fully set forth hereinafter.

Similar numbers of reference designate corresponding parts throughout.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a guntube strengthened by wire wound spirally around the tube and longitudinally-coiled wires interposed between the coils of the spirally-wound wire. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the gun, showing the ends of the compact rings of longitudinal wires interposed between the rings of the spirally-wound wire. Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of two of the strands of spirally-wound wire and a longitudinal wire placed between the spiral wires, so that the same are embedded into each other.

In the drawings 6 indicates the tube of the gun. This tube may be of uniform external diameter, as shown in the drawings. It may be of tapering diameter or of greater diameter and thickness at one portion of the gun than at others. In the preferred construction I turn on the outer surface of the tube b' spiral grooves into which a portion of the spirallywound wire 7 is embedded but I do not wish to confine myself to this spiral grooving of the tube, as the wire may be wound on the straight surface of the tube.

The longitudinal wires S are shown placed between each ring or cylinder of the spirallywound wire 7, and they are shown in Fig. l as bent over, so as to form continuous lengths of wire. This particular arrangement is not essential to the successful construction of the gun, fora series of longitudinal wires S, forminga closely-packed ring in cross-section, may be placed at any desired part between two layers of the spirally-wound wire. These longitudinal wires should be closely packed, so as to form a complete tube of longitudinal wires, and if more than one of such tubes of longitudinal wires is used each is formed of a sufficient number of wires to form a closelypacked ring in cross-section, as is shown in Fig. 2, the number of wires increasing with the diameter.

`\Vhen a continuous series of longitudinal wires are used, then, after the spiral wires are wound around the longitudinal wires, the longitudinal wires are bent and placed over the spiral-wound wires, a suliicient number of longitudinal wires are inserted to form a compact ring or cylinder, and as the diameter increases more longitudinal wires are added.

The spirally-wound wires may be wound over the longitudinal wires by winding the same under sufficient strain to secure a compact wire-wound section in the same manner as has been the practice, but I prefer to add to this a compressive strain. By this construction great longitudinal strength is secured. The longitudinal wires bind and hold the spiral wires together. A gun may therefore be wound spirally at a much greater pitch, and two, three, or more wires may be wound simultaneously spirally around the gun.

In carrying out the invention, as before stated, in the preferred form, I spirally groove the portion of the tube to be reinforced by wire to embed the wire partly in the groove. I now wind spirally one or more layers of wire on the part to be strengthened, or the whole length of the groove. I now pack IOO closely around the so-wound wire a number of longitudinal wires and temporarily secure the same. Onthese longitudinal wires I now Wind the spiral wire either in close spirals, so that the spiral Wires touch each other, or in more open spirals, and I compress and bend the longitudinal Wires so that the spiral wires will be partially embedded in the longitudinal wires, and the whole forms an interwoven mass, iirmly elnbedded, of great longitudinal as well as transverse strength and of much greater strength inmeither direction than can be secured by winding a( gun with wire without interplaiting the wire.

The longitudinal wires b may be more or less spirally around the gun-barrel Without materially diminishing the longitudinal strength, and it' the successive layers of wire are firmly compressed and two or more wires are wound simultaneously, then, as the pitch of the coils will be considerable, the wires may be wound first in one direction and then in the opposite direction, so as to cross each other at the angle of the pitch of the spirals, and thereby the so crossed and plaited wires will secure considerable longitudinal as well as transverse strength.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A gun strengthened by coils of Wire the same, and a series of wires extending parallel or nearly parallel to the axis of the gun' and transversely to the coils of wire, as described.

3. In a gun, the combination with a central tube or barrel having spiral grooves formed on the outer surface of the saine, of coils of wire wound spirally around theetube or barrel, and wire placed longitudinally between the spirals, as described. y

4. In a gun, the combination with the central tube or barrel, and coils of wire wound spirally around the same, of wires placed between two coils of the spirally-wound Wires so as to cross the spirally-Woul'id wires, as described.

5. The combination with a gun-barrel, of the wires 7 and S interplaited, in the manner su bstantially as described, to resist longitudinal as Well as transverse strain, as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JOSEPH. A. MILLER.

Witnesses:

M. F. BLIGH, J. A. MILLER, Jr. 

